Mu Ko Surin

The Surin Islands sit around sixty kilometres off the Phang Nga coast, five granite outcrops with reefs that begin in knee-deep water. That shallowness is the point: much of the snorkelling happens straight off the beach, over coral that needs no boat and no tank. The park runs everything from Ao Chong Khad - tents, simple bungalows, a canteen - and there is no private resort, no bar strip and no road. A Moken community, sea people who have fished these waters for generations, lives at Ao Bon on the southern island and receives visitors on set terms. The park closes for the southwest monsoon, so the season is short and beds are taken well in advance.

What you actually see

• Reef straight off the sand - snorkelling in waist-deep water without a boat.
• Ao Chong Khad camp - park tents and bungalows under the trees, the only lodging.
• The Moken village at Ao Bon - a stilt settlement visited on the community's terms.
• Turtles and reef sharks - green turtles over the seagrass, blacktips in the shallows.

When to go

The park opens around mid-October and closes in mid-May for the monsoon, with the calmest water between January and April. Speedboats leave Khuraburi in the morning and turn around in the afternoon, so staying overnight in park accommodation is the only way to have the reef without a crowd. Book beds weeks ahead of the trip.

Honest expectations

Day trips mean two hours of boat each way for a rushed few hours in the water. Park accommodation is basic: fan tents, shared bathrooms, canteen food, generator hours. Parts of the reef have bleached and not recovered, so coral cover is patchier than the photographs suggest. Sandflies bite on the beach, and nothing is refundable if the sea turns.

Nearby

Khuraburi's mangrove piers, the Similan Islands and the Khao Lak coast.